Vietnam sets up ASEAN offices

Vietnam sets up ASEAN offices

HANOI (AFP): Vietnam has set up two new government organizations to coordinate its activities within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a report said yesterday.

Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet ordered the establishment of a National ASEAN Committee under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister Tran Duc Luong to organize policy, the official Vietnam News Agency said.

The Foreign Ministry has also set up a National ASEAN Secretariat and all ministries will be required to set up offices that will be coordinated by the Government Office -- a central ministry presided over by the premier, the report said.

Vietnam joined the association in July at a meeting of foreign ministers in Brunei, becoming the seventh member of an organization originally founded in 1967 out of fear of Hanoi's ambitions in the region.

There were fears among the other members -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand -- that Vietnam was not ready to join the group because of its poorly trained bureaucracy.